Her story began as a little girl named Sudarwati. She was born in South Kalimantan on November 1st 1937. Unfortunately, her life story is not as wonderful as her work. Little Sudarwati grew to be a quiet, shy, and unconfident child. Often she isolated herself and cried. Most of the time she felt alone. This happened because the little plump girl often suffered kinds of diseases such as typhus and malaria. In her solitude many times she questioned and sang to God. Until one day she decided to change her nickname to a name that we all now have known as Titiek.Her love of art thrived ever since she was young. When she attended School for Kindergarten Teachers (back then it was known as Sekolah Guru Taman Kanak-Kanak (SGTK)), she always sang to her students. Entertaining kindergarten students was one of the things she loved. When she started entertaining the children’s laughter could be heard from other classrooms. But unfortunately, soon her dreams were shattered. She married a student soldier named Sukasno when she was 19 years old. Her second marriage was with Zainal Ardi and from this marriage she has two daughters named Petty Tunjung Sari and Ella Puspa Sari. Then she participated in a singing contest. Soon her path of becoming a singer opened up for her. But then she faced another problem; her family would not give her their blessing. Their conventional way if thinking could only give her a setback. The appropriate singing to them would only be sinden and that was the only kind of singing that people would respond to.

Her brother, Sumarno, tried really hard to convince her family that singing was not a profession that her parents referred to as saru or inferior. Sjamsul Bahri was one of the many people who helped Titiek. He invited Titiek to sing in his famous orchestra called the Orkes Studio Djakarta (OSD). Her singing started off with the song Chandra Buana by Ismail Marzuki. Her brilliant career soared through the neighbor countries.

Singing is not the only thing she is good at. She could also dance and she was known as the Queen of Indonesian Opera. Her famous and most looked forward to Opera was a Lebaran opera called Bawang Merah dan Bawang Putih in 1972. As a proof that her participation in the opera was much expected, she took part again in an opera called Ketupat Lebaran in 1974. After that, she played a role in a movie directed by famous directors. Year after year passed by and on her 60th birthday she arranged a concert. And she will put together another concert in November 2007.

Who would have thought that the little fragile Sudarwati could become infamous all over Indonesia like today? Today her name is spread out all over the media as Titiek Puspa.